The film editor’s words on her craft, and her longtime working relationship with Martin Scorsese.

Influential, award-winning editor Thelma Schoonmaker, seen here working with director Martin Scorsese on Goodfellas (1990)…

A fascinating look at the Academy Award winners MARTIN SCORSESE and THELMA SCHOONMAKER editing

GOODFELLAS (1990) pic.twitter.com/ORfjinOGv7

— Michael Warburton (@TheMonologist) August 16, 2025

… reveals in this collection of interview clips how editing moments in classics such as Goodfellas, The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), and The Irishman (2019) came to be (via StudioBinder):

More on Editing Scorsese, in her own words (via Royal Ocean Film Society):

The editor’s “cold perspective” is crucial to the director (via BAFTA Guru):

… and yet she can be awestruck watching the first cut of Raging Bull:

Love the way Thelma Schoonmaker talks about Raging Bull, like it was magic, beyond anything her and Scorsese were capable of pic.twitter.com/s29LxHxmt0

— John Frankensteiner (@JFrankensteiner) January 4, 2022

Thelma Schoonmaker / Walter Murch / Michael Wadleigh / Martin Scorsese in the edit bay
during post-production of WOODSTOCK (1970). pic.twitter.com/HjSTB660Du

— Vashi Nedomansky, ACE (@vashikoo) April 2, 2022

Further Viewing

Thomas Flight examines how – and why – Thelma Schoonmaker breaks the rules of continuity:

Thelma Schoonmaker, along with Dede Allen, Sally Menke and others, is part of a generation of hugely influential film editors who shaped American cinema in the second half of the 20th Century – and beyond:

Film School: The Editors Who Changed American Cinema

Watch Martin Scorsese Directing:

Film School: Watch Martin Scorsese Directing